Okay, we're going to open the
Bibles to Exodus 17. There is one of the glorious
names of the Lord is in Exodus 17 verse 15. Moses built an altar and called
the name of it Jehovah Nissi. Jehovah Nissi means the Lord,
our banner. In verse 14 you'll see in that
chapter that the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial
in a book. So write it down, so it's written
for all to see, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. This
is something to be written for a memorial, and it's to be written
and to be repeated, the story is to be told again and again. This is something to be noted,
to be remembered, and to be laid before the people of God. Verse
16, for, because he said, because the Lord has sworn that the Lord
will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. So here in Exodus 17, we have
the first battle after the Red Sea. It's something, as I said,
to be written, to be rehearsed, to be remembered, but it's also
the first memorial commanded to be made by the Lord's provision. Moses was commanded to build
an altar. And here, of course, In Exodus
we have the Lord again revealing His character and then revealing
His character in a name and revealing His character in wonderful ways. He is the Lord, our banner. He is the banner of His people. So we go back to lay the context
of this story, seeing we are called upon to remember it. Verse
1 of chapter 17, all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed
from the wilderness of sin. They had come to the waters of
Mara as we saw last week and then they had travelled from
there to the palm trees of Elam and now they had moved on just
a little while later to the wilderness of sin. and after their journeyings. There is, of course, a congregation
of the children of Israel. The congregation of Israel in
those days typified the spiritual Israel, the children of God. They are redeemed. by the blood
of the Lamb. They are redeemed from the judgment
of the Lord. It fell on the Lamb rather than
on them. They are redeemed from this world.
They are redeemed from Satan's entrapment. But also these wilderness
journeys are a picture in so many ways of the life of a believer
in this world. And we go on this journey, don't
we? Look at there in verse 1, the children of Israel journeyed
from the wilderness of sin after their journeyings. All the journeyings
of all the children of God are according to the commandment
of the Lord. All of your journeyings, including
the battles that come on that way, including the trials in
the wilderness, are all according to the commandment of the Lord.
Literally it means according to the mouth of the Lord. He
speaks the journey of his people. His congregation in so many ways
are revealed to be sinners in so many places, aren't they?
They were in Egypt by the command and promise of God, and in Egypt
we see that they are a people of unbelief. They come to the
Red Sea and they're tried again by God, and we see that He overrides
their unbelief. Last week we saw at Mara, they
were a people who murmured in unbelief. And in the wilderness
of sin, in chapter 16, verse 3, the children of Israel cried out, having seen all of
those extraordinary events. They cried, they said, would
to God We had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt
and they spoke there of all the pleasures of Egypt. They'd forgotten
that they were slaves and they said that they sat by flesh pots
and they eat bread to the full and you brought us forth into
this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger. And then they were given the
manner in chapter 16 verse 7 They'll see the glory of the
Lord, because He's heard their murmurings and He gave them manner. that we find out that when they
had the manner they still murmured against the Lord, they still
acted in unbelief. And here they come, as you see
there, the name of this place is in verse 7 of chapter 17,
they came to the place called Massa and Meribah. The words mean temptation and
strife. And here we see the people of
God. In verse 2, they did chide with Moses and said, give us
water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, why
chide with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? The people thirsted there for
water. And the people murmured against Moses and said, wherefore
is this, that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us
and our children and our cattle? They just had. Bitter water turned
to sweet. They'd just been led to the trees
of Elim. They'd just started to have that
miraculous meal of manna. And here they are yet again complaining,
murmuring against Moses, why did you bring us here? And Moses
responded in prayer, didn't he? Moses sought relief from all
this murmuring and unbelief. in crying out to his God. And then Moses is given these
instructions. The Lord said unto Moses, Go
on before the people, and take with thee three of the elders
of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take
in thy hand, and go. And then we have these remarkable
words, Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb. They are now at Mount Sinai and
it's literally stand before that rock. There is a particular rock
there. You stand before that rock and
thou shalt smite the rock. and there shall come water out
of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight
of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the
place Massah and Meribah, temptation and strife, because of the chiding
of Israel, because they tempted the Lord." This is what all temptation
and testing of the Lord is, isn't it? Is the Lord among us or not? Is the Lord among us? Is He here? Is He with us? Does He care for
us? Again and again, unbelief denies
His presence and denies His character. And one thing that's very clear
from all of what you would read in Exorcist up to this point,
no matter how much evidence you give people, Evidence does not
lead to faith. These people had the most remarkable
evidence. They ate it every morning. They
saw on Friday evening a Sabbath portion of this manna that went
rotten during the week. You can read about it in Exodus
16. It went rotten and had worms in it all week and then they
had this miracle on Sabbath of this manna that they could keep
overnight and there it was. They ate. They were living. on
the basis of a miracle, and yet here they are murmuring against
God. The lesson of course is that
all life, spiritual and physical, is from the Lord, and all murmuring
is against the Lord. All life, spiritual and physical,
is from the Lord, the spitting rock. Then we have the description
of this battle in which the Lord is revealed as Jehovah Nissi,
the Lord our Bower. You see when When the life-giving
waters flow from Jesus Christ, He is that smitten rock. 1 Corinthians
10 says it's clearly that He is the rock and He's the rock
that followed them. But when those waters flow, When
the life-giving waters, the spiritual life-giving waters, flow from
Jesus Christ into the hearts of a redeemed sinner, washed
in His blood, cleansed and made anew, see what verse 8 says,
then, as they drank that water, then came Amalek and fought with
Israel." There's a great lesson there, of course, isn't there?
It's Amalek who comes and fights with Israel. Israel doesn't have
to go out and do battles. The Lord will do battles. But
Amalek is brought by the providence of God and the goodness of God
in the lives of his people. He's fought with Israel. Amalek,
of course, is just four generations from Abraham. It's remarkable,
isn't it? He is Esau's great-grandson. No, he's a grandson, I beg your
pardon. He's Abraham's great-great-grandson. There is, of course, a picture
of that war that begins in a believer. from the time of his conversion
until the time of his death. The people of this world live
in relative peace, but there is in the life of a believer,
there is a battle that the world will never know about in the
lives of God's people. This is just a very instructive
scene, isn't it? The world, the flesh and the
devil are constantly at war against us and there's a war going on
outside and there's a war going on within. And if you read Psalm
73, that Graham and I were talking about on Sunday morning, you'll
find that the wicked, the wicked so often in this world, march
through this world without the trials and troubles that Amalek
brings to the people of God. So here we have the battle scene
in these next verses. Verse 9, Moses said to Joshua,
choose out men and go out and fight with Amalek tomorrow. I
will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God. in
my hand." So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with
Amalek. And Moses, Aaron and Hur went
up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass when Moses
held up his hand that Israel prevailed and when he let down
his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy They
took a stone, put it under him and he sat there on, and Aaron
and her stayed up his hands, one on the one side and one on
the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down
of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword. That word discomfited
means to be thrashed, the living daylights out of them, decimated
them is what he did. And he did it with the edge of
the sword. So there's the battle scene. They're standing on that
hill. Moses there lifting up this banner. He had the rod of God in his
hand. He lifted up his arms, as it
were, in prayer to God, raising up that rod. That rod which was
symbolic of so many things, wasn't it? Symbolic of God's omnipotent
power. It's symbolic of God's judgement
on the people of Israel. It's the symbol of God's deliverance
as they went through the Red Sea after Moses touched it. It's
the lifting up, of course. It's the lifting up of the banner. and that lifting up, pictures
in so many ways. Pictures what it is for us in
these wilderness wanderings, isn't it? There is just a physical
picture, isn't it? We get weary. I don't know about
you, but I get weary. The older I get, the more prone
I am to being weary. and you get weary of the battle
and you get weary of the journey and your arms hang down just
as Moses' arms hang down and your legs become feeble just
as Moses become feeble. And it looks as if, doesn't it,
and it certainly seemed that way from the troops in the valley,
that in this state it appears as if the enemy will prevail. But, there's a great but isn't
it, that when we have no strength in ourselves, our strength, like
Moses' strength, and their power in this battle came from Aaron
and Hur. Aaron of course represents Christ
our High Priest. We're held up by Christ our High
Priest. Her is a lovely name. It means
liberty. It's symbolic of the freedom
of the gospel that the Spirit of God brings into the hearts
of people. We need to be lifted up. We need
our hearts to be comforted. He is the comforter. He is that
counsellor. And we lift up, by the grace
of God, we lift up our hands to God in prayer. What's being
shown here of course is that we can't even pray, we can't
even pray without the assistance of God. But also we see that
Moses was set down, Moses was set down on a sure foundation. So here we see our mighty Saviour
in so many marvellous pictures. This is the rock that stabilised
Moses and held him up. He is actually held up by the
Lord Jesus. He is the rod of God held up. And for Joshua and his men, Their
battle is won when they see Jehovah Nissi, when they see the Lord
our banner lifted high. Christians are encouraged throughout
the scriptures, aren't they, to look up, to look up and live,
to look up and prevail. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right
hand of God. weak and frail, and the battle
like Amalek comes to the weak and the frail. In Deuteronomy
25 there is an instruction to the people of God by Moses as
he lay dying, again a reminder to remember. He says in verse
17, he says, Remember what Amalek did unto you by the way when
you have come forth out of Egypt. And this is what Amalek did,
how he met you by the way and smote the hindmost of thee, even
all that were feeble. Satan roams around as a roaring
lion seeking those he may devour. See, even all that were feeble
and those that were faint and weary. And here is a description,
isn't it? of all the enemies of God, in
all their forms, and he feared not God." As we read earlier, Joshua discomfited Amalek
in his paper with the edge of the sword. Jehovah Nissi, the
Lord our banner, the Lord our ensign, the Lord our flag as
it were. And that banner is a banner which
unites the people. It's a rallying point and it's
that which in a sense describes the people. Our flag describes
the fact that we have a British heritage and that we live in
the southern hemisphere and we have the Southern Cross. on our
flag and we have a symbol of what we are in that pointed star
representing the states. The stars and the stripes is
a very, very enigmatic symbol. Flags and banners are symbols,
aren't they? and they're held high and they're
held in extraordinary esteem. Peter and I were walking through
the streets of wherever it is in Sydney that he was staying,
one of those old inner city places, but we walked past a government
building, a local government building, and there was a lady
at the front and she was pulling down the flag on the flagpole.
And he keeps thinking, wouldn't it be nice to hang one of those
up on the wall? But the flag is so precious in those situations
that that flag had to be taken down, folded up, and then it
had to be taken away and destroyed. and a new flag put in its place,
and that was her job for the day, that she had to certify. There are places, and I think
America might be one, where if a flag touches the ground it's
to be destroyed. See, flags are held high, and
flags in wartime are a rallying point for the troop, and they're
a sign of course, aren't they, as the flag is held up, they're
a sign that you're Team, your army is still victorious, whatever
the flag is up. The army is victorious. And when,
of course, the battle is won, it's planted on the top of a
hill and it signifies victory. You've seen, no doubt, those
pictures from the Middle East of ISIS and others putting flags
and they'll get to capture a city and the first thing they'll do
is that they'll get to the highest building and they'll take down
the enemy's flag and they'll plant their own flag. The Lord
Jesus is saying that He is our banner. It talks in verse 10, speaks
to us in verse 10 of the day. If you go back to earlier in
chapter 11 you'll see what that day is. Of course it's the day
of the Lord Jesus, it's the day of His incarnation, it's the
day of Him revealing who He is as God in the flesh, God with
His people, God reigning and ruling. But verse 10 says, in
that day In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall
stand for an ensign, the same word, a banner, shall stand for
an ensign of the people, and to it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. If you go back, you'll see that
this root out of Jesse in verse two is, the spirit of the Lord
shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
a spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear
of the Lord, and shall make him quick of understanding in the
fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge up the sight of his
eyes, neither reprove up the hearing of his ears, but with
righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity
for the meek of the earth, and he shall smite the earth with
the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall
he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the
girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reign. in verse 11 it goes on after
describing this banner, isn't it? And it shall come to pass
in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again a second time
to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from
Assyria and Egypt, from Pathos and Cush and from Elam and from
Shinar, Jainar and Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign
for the nation, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Israel from the four corners of the
earth." So holding up our banner is holding up the Lord Jesus,
the Lord Jesus in the majesty of His person. It's just a description
of Him, isn't it? It's holding up the Lord Jesus
with the working of His power. It's holding up the Lord Jesus
with the merits of His blood. It's holding up the Lord Jesus
in the absolute certainty of His triumph. If you read those
verses again, you'll see that it's just promise after promise
after promise and based on the character of our God. When he
is lifted up, he is the rallying point. When he is lifted up,
his people find their place, a place and a person to whom
they belong. His people In rallying to Him,
they find their brethren, they find the communion and that congregation,
as it says in verse 1. They all rally to Him. As the Lord Jesus promised, He
said, when I am lifted up, when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw all people to Myself. His people find in Him their
hope. His people find in Him their
future and their comfort. His people find in Him their
rest. He is our banner and believers
are all united You see, they see eye to eye. They see eye
to eye about his character. They see eye to eye about his
person. Because the banner, just like
our flags today, is a revelation of his person. It's a revelation
of his character. We are here called by God to
be witnesses. Literally in the Greek it means
to be martyrs. We are here to stand as martyrs,
to bear witness to His character, to bear witness to His Majesty. And of course, to come back to
our text in Exodus 17, the banner is lifted up in the time of war. And again we see that it's the
Lord God, by His commandment, He leads His people on their
journeys. He leads His people, He leads
His own into this battle. He leads His own into this battle
under His banner. And our great Lord Jesus, our
great Joshua, is down there in the valley winning the battle. And how does he win the battle?
He wins the battle with the edge of the sword. He wins the battle
by the power of his word. He wins the battle on behalf
of his people. Soldiers of the cross. is often
sung in hymns, isn't it? We have just one banner. But
also when that one banner is lifted up, as we see with Amalek
attacking the people of God, when the banner is lifted up,
when his work of grace has begun in the lives of his people, and
when he's gathered his people together, there is the time of
the enemy's focus of his attack, and there is the point of his
attack. I love that picture in Genesis 15 of Abraham where the
sacrifice was laid out as God cut that covenant, that eternal
everlasting covenant with Abraham. With the Lord Jesus, with all
of Abraham's seed, all the children of God and Abraham's job, the
one activity that Abraham did was to keep the vultures away
from the sacrifice. We keep the birds of prey from
the sacrifice by the grace of God. The one place that Satan
finds such enmity and causes his most vicious attacks on the
people of God is when the Lord Jesus is lifted up in his glory,
when his particular affective atonement is declared as a victory,
a victory over sin, a victory over all of the enemies of God's
people. and a triumphant victory. We
can't hold up a banner of an atonement that doesn't atone.
We cannot hold up the banner of a saviour who tries to save
but can't save unless he has some assistance. We cannot hold
up the banner of a sovereign God who is not sovereign over
absolutely everything in this world. We cannot hold up a banner
of Christ's righteousness without declaring the perfect and complete
sufficiency of it. God is satisfied. It's God who justifies. We must hold up that banner of
the perfect freeness, the absolute freeness of saving grace. I will heal their black sidings,
I will love them freely." We must hold up that banner because
Satan will attack, as he did in Deuteronomy, he will attack
the weak and the feeble and he will attack us in our moments
of doubting the presence of God with us. We will be attacked
on the basis of the fullness of his pardon will be caused
to say with the children of Israel, is the Lord among us? Is he faithful
to his word? Are his promises true? Satan
will come, as he did to even Adam in the garden, and say,
did God really say? Is God really good? Is God not
withholding some good, which is what Satan tempted them with?
Will God really judge and judge in truthfulness and perfection?
So the banner is lifted up, as I said earlier, it's lifted up
in defiance of the enemy. Martin Luther, when he was attacked
again and again, the Roman Catholic Church were enraged against him.
And Martin Luther used to get again and again these orders.
The Pope would write out a bull of condemnation, sending Martin
Luther and all who followed him to hell. And Martin Luther used
to say to the people gathered around him, he used to say, come,
let us sing Psalm 46 and spite the devil. I'll read a little
bit of Psalm 46 to you because it's glorious. This is our banner. God is our refuge and strength,
a present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though
the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake and the swelling thereof.
There is a river, there is a river, the streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God. The holy place of the tabernacles
of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she
shall not be moved. God shall help her and that right
early. The heathen raged and the kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice and the
earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the
Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh
wars to cease until the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow
and cutteth the spear asunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still, be still and know that I am God. I will be
exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge."
And that Selah word, as I remind myself and you often, is saying,
pause and stop and think. Hold up this banner. Of course
the banner, as we saw in the story in Exodus 17, the banner
is a source of comfort to the wounded and to the weary soldier. So our consolation and our comfort
in our rest is with him, as Isaiah 11 says, his rest shall be glorious. Our banner is lifted up forever. We may not see it clearly. We may have our hands hanging
down and we may be weak. We may be attacked by Amalek,
be feeble and weary. But our great God prevails. It's His journey. He has led us into it. He is
going to be lifted up. Our Lord Jesus is also that banner
that's lifted up in Victory March. At the end, when the armies come
back in triumph, they hold up that banner, that banner which
is emblematic of all the battles that they have been through,
they've been led through. Let me just turn and look at
one thing briefly in closing, in Psalm 60 verse 4, We have the Lord declaring, why don't we go back to verse 1 because
it's so beautiful, O God thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered
us, thou hast been displeased, O turn thyself to us again. Thou hast made the earth to tremble,
Thou hast broken it. Heal the breaches thereof, for
it shakes. Thou hast showed Thy people hard
things. Thou hast made us to drink the
wine of astonishment. And then verse 4, Thou hast given
a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because
of the truth. We have been given a banner,
brothers and sisters in Christ, that may be displayed because
of the truth. God the Father has given the
Lord Jesus Christ as a banner of salvation in eternity. He was our Mediator, He was our
Assurity, He was our Redeemer, He was the Husband of His people,
He is the Messiah of God, He is King and Lord and Saviour. And in time He came, He came
to be a banner for His people, a rallying point, a point where
the enemy took special aim on Him and His people went free
as our great Joshua. Our great Joshua won that battle. He is our banner in salvation. He took me into his banqueting
house, says the Shulamite and so on and so on. He took me into
his banqueting house. You can't get into his banqueting
house unless he takes you there. He took me into his banqueting
house and his banner over me was love. And if you go to the
end of Song of Solomon, you'll see that that love is an eternal,
unquenchable, unfailing love. It's a banner of mercy and grace
and eternal life to every believer. And that banner is lifted up
in the Gospel. See, it's Christ. We want to
talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to talk about Him and
we want Him to be exalted and not men. We want to talk about
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We want to talk about
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified and Him glorified. It's a banner lifted up in the
church and there will be a time again and again in our journey
here. It's a journey of God's ordaining.
It's a journey through a wilderness of God's ordaining and the trials
are there with our God leading His people. It's given this banner
to an elect remnant. It's given not to everyone. In
Psalm 60 verse 4 it says, it's given to them that fear God. Have a fear of God before their
eyes. Now great Joshua, as he did with
Satan in his wilderness journey for that 40 days, at the end
of that 40 days of temptation, he defeated Amalek with the sword,
with the edge of the sword, verse 13 of chapter 17 of Exodus, with
the word of God. Our weapons are not calm. Our weapons are spiritual. Our weapons are the weapons of
spiritual warfare. I love 2 Corinthians 10 verse
4. Verse 3, we walk not in the flesh
and we do not war after the flesh. We do not have to fight battles
as the fleshly people of this world do. Verse 4, the weapons
of our warfare are not karma. but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds. And I love this next verse, casting
down imaginations. and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God." You think of the high
things that are all over this world in this society of ours
and its philosophy and its morals and other things. The whole world
of our western civilization seems to exalt itself by high things
against the knowledge of God. But we cast those things down,
not by our strength. We are mighty through God, verse
4, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's how Amalek
is defeated. by the Sword, the Word of God. I'll just finish with another
reference to this banner, the Lord Jesus, our banner. In Psalm
20 verse 5 it says, We will rejoice in thy salvation, we will rejoice
in Thy salvation. We will rejoice in the way God
saves. We will rejoice in the character
of God revealed in His salvation. We will rejoice in Him doing
the saving. We will rejoice in Thy salvation
and in the name of the Lord. We will rejoice, we will find
our comfort in Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner. And in the
name of our God, we will set up our banners. The Lord fulfil
all thy petitions. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
that we come before you and see so much of our own lives written
beforehand in the journeys of the people of Israel. Heavenly
Father, so often we see ourselves in the wilderness and what the
waters of Mara look so enticing and so fulfilling is bitter unless
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is put into those waters to sweeten
them delightfully. So often, Heavenly Father, we
like Moses find ourselves flagging a need to find rest upon a rock,
a need to be held up by our great Prince of Peace and by the Blessed
Holy Spirit taking the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
banner, and revealing them to us, making them spirit and life
in the lives of your people. And our Father, we thank you.
We thank you that the Lord Jesus is a banner. We thank you, Heavenly
Father, that you call upon us to remember Him and to remember
His victory, to remember the fulfilment of His promises. We thank you our God. We thank
you our God for the revelation of who you are in your dear and
precious Son. We thank you for revealing to
us. who the Lord Jesus is. We thank
you, Heavenly Father, for us being entrusted with a banner. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
by your grace you would cause him to be lifted up high in our
midst, that he would be seen high and lifted up, exalted,
Heavenly Father. We pray again that you would
cause yourself to receive much glory by your Son being honoured
in our lives and in our midst and in our witness in this world,
Heavenly Father. We thank you again for your word
of promise. We thank you that you are a God
who cannot lie. Help us to find rest in Him,
your dear and precious Son, our Father. Amen.